MOSCOW. Feb 29 (Interfax) - Russia's Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle equipped with a Fregat upper stage and carrying the Meteor-M No.2-4 weather satellite and 18 small satellites blasted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on Thursday, a Roscosmos live broadcast showed.
The Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from the Launch Site 1C. About ten minutes after the takeoff, the Fregat with the satellites separated from the rocket's third stage.
The Meteor-M No.2-4 satellite is expected to separate from the Fregat an hour after it is put into the orbit.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at a Wednesday meeting of the Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation that the satellite built by Russian enterprises for Iran would be launched as a hosted payload from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on February 29.